by Kraus, Mike
Although there were still pockets of high-level radiation, the more insidious danger came from a slightly different avenue. Tiny radioactive particles still clung to every surface of the buildings and the ground in and around the city. Brushing up against the particles would contaminate your skin and clothing, which merely meant that you had to dispose of your clothing and scrub yourself before returning to your home.
The worse threat from the particles was getting them inside your body where they wouldn’t have to contend with going through layers of cloth and skin before reaching vital organs. Inhaling or eating radioactive particles could be devastating to your body, depending on the quantity consumed. For the residents and tourists of Kiev, dealing with radiation had become a normal part of life, and their guard sometimes dropped. Someone would walk through the Exclusion Zone and not wash their hands before eating. Someone would go through a building and not rinse their shoes off before reentering their vehicle. Little things like this contributed to the slow relaxing of safety precautions by those who visited the Zone, despite the best warnings from the Ukrainian government and the more cautious individuals.
Though aware of the dangers of radiation, Dimitri and Yuri were two victims of this growing laxness about safety precautions. They walked directly through tall grasses in the fields around Prip’Yat, brushing it with their hands and then touching their faces as they adjusted their balaclavas. Though the radiation was invisible, odorless and tasteless, it was still present.
“Are you sure this is the right way, Dimitri?” The pair had been walking for nearly an hour, watching as the twilight gave way to the darkness that enveloped them in the landscape, rendering them nearly invisible in their dark clothing.
“Yes, cousin, for the hundredth time, I’m sure! We are almost there, just on the other side of these trees.”
Once they were clear of the checkpoints and well into the Exclusion Zone, Dimitri pulled out a map that was printed on several pieces of paper held together with paperclips. He studied it under his flashlight as they walked, trying to find landmarks in the darkness. He was as sure as he could be that they were on the right path, but he was starting to wonder himself if they had taken the wrong route and walked past the city altogether.
“There, up ahead!” Yuri tapped Dimitri on the shoulder, pointing in front of them.
Through the trees, dark square shadows rose up, solidifying into buildings, windows and doorways. The cousins walked in silence out of the forest, standing before an enormous apartment building. The paint on the outside had long since cracked and faded, scattered to the winds by time and nature. Balconies stood out on each floor of the apartment building even in the dim light of the dusk, offset by rows upon rows of matching windows, two per apartment. The cousins walked around the building, giving it a wide berth as they stared up at it towering over them.
Around the apartment, more buildings stretched up, rising into view as they contrasted with the rising moon. Ahead through the maze of apartments stretched a long clear path, the main road into and out of Prip’Yat. Here in the heart of the city there were no guardhouses and no residents, only animals, trees and grass. Dimitri and Yuri walked in silence and awe of the city that surrounded them, taken aback by the serenity. Miles away, back in their homes, the sound of traffic was a constant and ever-present background noise. Here, though, the only sound was an occasional insect, chirping or buzzing in the distance.
The cousins walked on to the main road, standing on the blacktop. They pulled off their balaclavas, turning around in wonder, shining their flashlights up at the buildings that surrounded them.
Dimitri grinned at his younger companion. “Welcome to Prip’Yat, cousin.”
Chapter Four
Iosif Seleznev | Lucas Pokrov
Trained as a sniper, Lucas trailed behind Iosif by several yards, scanning the rooftops and thick vegetation for any signs of movement. His thick mask made breathing more difficult, and both men wheezed as they struggled to take in enough oxygen through the thick filters. Iosif kept his assault rifle pressed firmly against his shoulder as he walked down the side of the road, using the infrared scope to look for any signs of movement in the area. Behind him, Lucas used a thermal scope on his SVD to check for heat signatures. For the moment, the city was quiet and devoid of movement, but the men stayed alert as they moved.
Though he was only twenty-seven years old, Lucas felt like he was sixty. Years of back-to-back missions – both inside Russia and into foreign territories – had quickly eaten away at his youthful demeanor. An orphan with no siblings or relatives to care for him, Lucas grew up in an underfunded and overcrowded Children’s Home in Moscow. Once he reached the age of eighteen, he joined the military and quickly rose through the ranks. Lucas had an unwavering commitment to his new way of life and though his rebellious nature had been repressed by his training, it was still there, lurking underneath the surface. He followed all orders he was given without question, though he did often ponder the operations he was tasked with carrying out, wondering how much of the truth he was being told.
Lucas thought back to one of the briefings they had undergone in preparation for the mission as he walked. Do not rely solely on your equipment or on your eyes. You must split your attention between the two. The disturbance you are investigating does not always show up on thermal or infrared, and we have had reports of it vanishing from plain sight. Based on the ludicrous mission briefing, Lucas was certain that they would turn up empty handed, and that the true purpose of the mission was to satisfy some bored bureaucrat sitting behind a mahogany desk.
Assholes, sending us out on a wild good chase like this. Lucas snorted in derision, prompting a quick look back from his superior. Lucas nodded curtly in response to the look he received and pushed the negative thoughts of the mission from his mind. A few days spent in a place where they were certain to not get shot at sounded almost like a vacation, despite the mask and the weight of their equipment.
According to their maps and GPS, Iosif and Lucas were passing through a wooded area near the stadium in Prip’Yat, at the northeastern end of the town. The road branched off into a few different directions, but the two soldiers moved through the trees and brush, preferring the cover of the vegetation to the openness of the road.
On their left was a vast area of sand and dirt, completely devoid of trees, bushes and all but the hardiest of grasses. This area had been a dumping ground for radioactive sand from the waters around the city, and concrete barriers were set up to prevent the contaminated sand and soil from washing into the nearby river. Lucas glanced down at his radiation meter, which had spiked briefly but was back down at a reasonable level. As the two didn’t venture onto the sand itself, they would be safe from the majority of the radiation in the area.
After a few minutes of hurried walking, Lucas glanced to the west and saw the silhouette of chairs that marked the nearby stadium. He tapped the button for the secure communications link between himself and Iosif and spoke softly.
“We’re passing the stadium. Any signs of movement?”
Ahead of him, in the dark, Iosif stopped and knelt down in a patch of dirt as he responded. “A few animals, nothing more. Definitely no ‘monster’ or whatever the hell we’re looking for. Let’s stop for a moment.”
Lucas confirmed the decision and stood still, not wanting to touch any more of the grass around them than he had to.
After half a minute had passed, Lucas flexed his arms, ready to get moving gain. “Where to now?”
Iosif scanned the area ahead of them with his rifle and pointed forward along the bank of the lake that was near the radioactive sand. “Let’s move up to the hospital. That’s one of the scan locations marked on our checklist.”
Iosif stood and moved forward again, with Lucas behind him. As the moon continued to rise in the sky, a few clouds began to drift toward them, gradually starting to block out the ambient light and forcing the pair to rely more heavily on their thermal and infrared sights
in the darkness. As the shadows of the clouds moved along the ground from the west to the east, off in the distance, too far away for them to notice, a shadow moved perpendicular to those from the clouds as it wound its way through the city.
Chapter Five
Yuri Volkov | Dimitri Alexeiev
While planning their trip, Dimitri and Yuri had carefully checked the tour guide schedules, finding – to their amazement – that none had been scheduled by any tour agency for a three day period. This was very rare, and Dimitri had been overjoyed to see that it coincided with the annual school camping trip. Dimitri was ruthless in his insisting that they go. “It’s a sign from God that we should explore!” Yuri was less convinced of this fact, but eventually relented to Dimitri.
Despite the promise of no scheduled tours, there was always the possibility of running into an impromptu exploration like their own, or encountering an extremely rare guard patrol through the area. The larger threat, though, came from the animals that called the city home. Though they stayed in the wilderness areas during the day, they would occasionally venture into the city at night to scavenge for food. Wild dogs, interbred for generations, were the biggest danger since they traveled in packs and had virtually no fear of humans. Bears were less common, though every once in a while a tour group would have a close encounter with one in the city during the early morning or late evening.
“We’ll explore the city tonight and tomorrow morning, Yuri. It’ll be glorious!” Dimitri and Yuri were still taken aback by the sight of the city and the fact that they were finally standing in its center, a place they had imagined for years but never had the opportunity to see in person until now. The chill of the night air grew in intensity, making both cousins glad for the large down jackets that they were both wearing. Dimitri still held on to his Kalash, though it was loosened now, shaking back and forth on his back as he walked.
Prip’Yat was a city reclaimed by nature and undergoing a reverse transformation. Once a city of steel and cement, it was returning to a natural state. Grass, weeds and bushes cracked the streets and sidewalks, trees grew in the center of abandoned fountains and vines covered entire buildings, slowly cracking away at their shells. In another fifty years, the city would be unrecognizable, completely consumed by the world around it.
The encroachment of nature upon the city meant that radiation hotspots were more frequent and better hidden, disguised in clumps of trees or in the tall grass. Without a Geiger counter, the cousins moved quickly, sticking to the main roads and sidewalks while avoiding the open areas around the city. The roads, while still contaminated, offered better protection than the surrounding grass, and less of a chance of happening upon a hotspot. Yuri kept an eye on his disposable radiation meter. It had climbed by a few ticks since he last checked, but the movement was slow and his total exposure was still well within the safe zone.
Massive trees grew in the city square, their thick foliage rustling quietly in the breeze. Dimitri and Yuri’s boots ticked softly on the pavement as they walked, making a beeline for the Palace of Culture on the northwest side of the square. A common theme in the Soviet era, Palaces of Culture typically contained movie theaters, swimming pools and studios where the inhabitants of a city could meet and interact. Prip’Yat was no exception, though the once beautiful building was torn apart – glass, wood and metal littering the floors.
The crack of debris under the feet of the cousins was unnerving in the silence as they climbed the steps, entering the main section of the Palace of Culture. The Ferris wheel was visible out the front of the Palace. As one of the most iconic images representing the Chernobyl disaster and the city of Prip’Yat, the Ferris wheel was also one of the most dangerous, harboring extreme amounts of radiation. While it was a potentially lethal place to visit, it nonetheless remained a tantalizing target.
Stairs wound upwards into the large building and corridors snaked off in every direction, with new discoveries waiting to be uncovered. The twin flashlight beams from Yuri and Dimitri cut through the shadows of the building as they turned around, staring at the arched ceiling, then looked at each other.
Dimitri spoke with a grin. “Where first, cousin?”
Chapter Six
Iosif Seleznev | Lucas Pokrov
Iosif held a closed fist up, signaling for Lucas to stop. Lucas crouched low to the ground, sweeping his SVD to the left, right and back of the pair for any signs of trouble. A click came through on his earpiece followed by Iosif’s voice.
“Moving past the hospital now. Go slow, check the roofs, I’ll take the ground.”
Lucas tapped the microphone button once to signify an affirmative response. Following Iosif’s lead, he began to circle the hospital, giving it a wide berth and keeping several yards between him and his comrade.
From one hundred yards away, the soldiers could see nearly every section of the hospital at once, a fact that Lucas used to his full advantage. After doing a scan of the roof of the hospital with his thermal scope, he began to scan the long rows of windows, looking for any unusual heat signatures. The side of the building was dark blue in the cold of the night and the windows were black with no other colors to be seen.
After moving several paces forward, Lucas flipped his thermal scope down to the right on the SVD and flipped up a second scope that had been locked into place on the opposite side of the rifle. This scope was of lesser magnification and allowed him to see in infrared. After a quick check through the infrared scope, he tapped the microphone button and spoke.
“Nothing on either band. Doing a visual scan, then circling around the rear.” A single click in his earpiece told him that Iosif had received his message and wanted him to proceed.
Lucas pulled a small pair of binoculars out of a pouch on his vest and scanned the building one final time, checking to see if anything was visible. What’s going to show up that wasn’t on either scope, though? Orders were orders, though, and Lucas obeyed them to the letter.
Satisfied that nothing was in the windows or on the roof of the hospital on the eastern side, Lucas began to circle around the northern part of the building, moving to check the western side of the hospital and then link up with Iosif at the entrance on the south side of the structure.
Without the thermal or infrared scopes, the hospital was both dark and uninviting. The exterior façade was damaged and crumbling, and the tan paint was barely visible in the moonlight. Craggy trees devoid of leaves had grown close around the building in the last few decades and their haphazard shadows were cast over the ground and the building, shaking as the trees vibrated in the breeze.
A senior ranking officer for two years, Iosif Seleznev was no stranger to hostile environments, though he grudgingly admitted to himself that this city was the first in a long time to evoke any type of emotion in him. Wading through swamps, crawling through deserts and being outnumbered by enemies ten-to-one didn’t rattle him. This city spooked him, though. Iosif couldn’t pinpoint what exactly had put him on edge, but he trusted his gut, so he stayed alert as he cautiously approached the hospital.
On the opposite side of the hospital from Iosif, Lucas was finishing his thermal and infrared sweeps of the windows and roof of the building. After lowering his rifle, he turned to the side to readjust his face mask before conducting a final visual sweep. The mask was stifling even in the cold air, and he dearly wished he could remove it. His Geiger counter still showed slightly high radiation levels, though, so he kept the mask on, not wanting to have to be subjected to the intensive radiation poisoning treatment that was mandatory for soldiers when they returned from missions. Radiation contamination up to a certain level was tolerated, but anything beyond that got you a week in isolation, drinking gallons of chemicals designed to flush the radiation from your body. In Lucas’s mind, a few days with a mask was preferable to that type of experience.
Lucas turned back to check the hospital building one last time with his binoculars when movement at the edge of his field of view caught his eye. He
whipped his head toward the movement, bringing his scope up to scan for it. The infrared scope was still in place and he squinted through it, trying to find the source of the movement again. Fifteen hundred yards away, in between several apartment buildings and countless trees, Lucas made out the faintest flicker of movement, a dark shadow darting behind the buildings. Adrenaline pumped through his body as he pushed his microphone button and spoke quickly to Iosif.
“Movement west, through the buildings, half a kilometer out. Looked like a big shadow moving fast.”
Iosif’s voice was hurried as he replied. “Move out. I’ll pick up and follow behind you.”
Lucas was already up and running before Iosif finished his reply. As he ran, he jabbed the microphone button once and then broke into a sprint, dodging low hanging branches and running around rubble, trees and bushes that grew throughout the city, heading in the direction of the shadow.
